Story of a Cat
by Lyria Padfoot
Summary: A certain cat named Crookshanks, and a certain wizard named Sirius Black. Intrigued? You should be! Please R/R!!!! (Yes, if you're a Lyri fan, she's here too!)
1. Chapter 1

A/N: The vicious rabid plot Animagus has returned!! This is a piece that's been running around in my head for a bit, and I wanted to get it out on paper (or computer, rather). Enjoy and all that, and remember that Harry Potter belongs to J.K.R.  
  
  
  
I was never a beautiful creature. I wasn't the one that everyone stared in at and called "cute," and I was certainly never the one that the little kids wanted. In fact, for some time I thought my name was "Please, Mummy, not him!"  
  
I was surprised when she bought me. Picked me out of that cage in the store and brought me home, and oh, sometimes I wish it hadn't been her...  
  
Enough about me. I'm not the one this story is about. No one wants to read the story of Crookshanks the ugly, bow-legged cat. On the other hand, perhaps I can interest you in the story of Lyria Strider and Sirius Black...  
  
  
  
Finally, the last trunk was placed on the floor of her bedroom. She let me out of my cage and I hopped out, glad to be in my new home and able to stretch.  
  
"How is it that someone as little as you has this much stuff?!?" Sirius demanded. "If we'd done this the Muggle way, it would have taken a week!"  
  
"That's why we didn't," Lyria Strider replied as she finished making up the newly-arrived bed. "At least you helped. Where are those other three useless morons?"  
  
"Drinking butterbeer and begging Lily to order in a pizza," he replied.  
  
"Pizza?"  
  
"That Muggle food she got Prongs addicted to. She reckons we could do it, but wants to ask you, as it's your new flat." He stepped over to wrap his arms around her.  
  
"She can order it, and if James wants it that badly, he can go pick it up. He knows how to drive." Lyria leaned against him companionably. "And in the meantime, I guess she'd better cut my hair."  
  
"If you go into Auror training tomorrow with it that long, they'll just make you cut it anyway," Sirius reminded. "It'll look great. You'll look great. Hell, you'd look great bald."  
  
She laughed, wrapping an arm around him. "We'd better go tell your little loser friend to go get his pizza," she called loudly, grabbing the scissors and emerging from the bedroom.  
  
"Look, they're done in there, and both seem to be dressed as they were upon entering!" James Potter called back mockingly.  
  
"We all know what you're thinking about, don't we?" Remus quipped. "If I were your fiance, I'd get rid of you."  
  
"If I were engaged to you, Moony, I'd go," James replied with a smirk.  
  
Meanwhile, Lily had taken control of the scissors. "It'll look good, Lyria," she assured her friend.  
  
"If it doesn't, I hold you personally responsible," Lyria replied, closing her eyes.  
  
"It's adorable!" Lyndell Greenleaf declared as Lily put down the scissors. "Lyria, you've got to look at it..."  
  
"I don't want to look!" she cried.  
  
Lily dragged her into the main room, where James had returned with the pizza. "Everyone, what do we think?"  
  
"GOOD LORD! What did you do to her?!?" Sirius yelled.  
  
Lyria looked upset before she noticed the ever-so-slight grin on his face. "ARGH! I hate you, Sirius Black!"  
  
"That's not what you said last night," he smirked.  
  
So that's what all the noise was, I thought to myself. They'd better not have babies. Loud, stinky things, and they take up too much time that Lyria could be using to pay attention to me.  
  
"You were having trouble with speech at all, so be careful what you say now," she replied with a grin.  
  
"Well yeah, it's hard to talk when you've got your tongue down my throat," he countered.  
  
Friendly banter (and the consumption of pizza) continued until nearly one in the morning, when James, Lily, Remus, Lyndell, and Peter all Apparated home.  
  
"Want me to go home?" Sirius asked, moving to get up on the sofa.  
  
"Only if you need to get a change of clothes."  
  
He smiled. 


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: The usual applies. Enjoy!! If you've read Before They Were Legends (which I"m in the process of rewriting), this fight will look familiar.  
  
  
  
It was about a month later when Sirius moved into the flat. The three of us settled into a nice routine.  
  
Lyria would get up first, start coffee or tea, and get in the shower. By the time she was done, Sirius would have staggered out of bed and had a few cups of daily caffeine. They'd have breakfast, then he'd shower while she cleaned up, and they'd both leave for work. Then *I* got the flat to myself for the day. Sirius came home around 4:30 and started dinner, which was usually done around the time Lyria got home at five. Then they'd go out or someone would come over. Sometimes on weekends they wouldn't eat at home, but they'd go out and eat instead. Sundays, I could usually manage to get a plate of fish leftovers from Sirius, who grew rather fond of me. Anyway, after people left or they came home, they'd go off to bed. Somehow they never seemed to care that they shared the rather small one-bedroom flat; I guess it was enough room as far as they were concerned.  
  
Then one night, they went out, Lyria came home with a rather large ring on her left hand.  
  
Uh-oh. I knew what *that* meant. That meant that someday soon there'd be a wedding, and lots of people around the house, and maybe even stinky babies around. Maybe moving again, and children who pulled tails and sat down without paying attention.  
  
The routine stayed pretty constant after that, until one night they had a regular row. I remember it pretty well, because it was her birthday...  
  
"I don't believe you!" Lyria snapped. "He's your best friend, and you're passing off the most important thing he's ever asked of you to someone else!"  
  
Things had seemed normal at first. It took me a few minutes to figure out they were talking about that James man who came over a lot with Lyria's friend Lily. He always smelled like deer, but I could never figure out why.  
  
"I'm trying to protect them!" Sirius bellowed. "No one's going to think they'd use someone else!" He tried to calm down, but with little success. "Lyria, I don't know if I trust myself with..."  
  
"So you don't trust yourself? Then how the hell am I supposed to trust you?!?"  
  
"How is this about me now?" He demanded. "And if you agreed to marry me when you don't know you can trust me, you're the stupidest person I've ever met!"  
  
"THEN WHY DID YOU ASK ME TO MARRY YOU? Huh?!? Any reason you moved in here, or were you just after me for sex? Or information? Someone's been passing it on to the Death Eaters!!"  
  
"AFTER YOU FOR... ARE YOU ACCUSING ME?!?" That was it. He'd take almost anything from Lyria, but her accusations of betrayal he would not stand for.  
  
"EVERYONE ELSE SEEMS TO BE!" She barked. "And you aren't denying it."  
  
"I'M NOT DENYING IT?!? I shouldn't have to, we're engaged!! Ever since your damned Auror training, everyone's a traitor, aren't they??" He snapped.  
  
Lyria's eyes narrowed. "Maybe you should take your little motorbike and fly it the hell out of my life." You tell him, Lyria! Don't let him come in here and yell at you like that, it was your flat first! I rubbed against her ankles supportively.  
  
"Sounds like the best idea you've had all night," He replied, slamming the door behind him.  
  
Oh no, that was a problem. I guess they finally figured out that they needed some more space or something. Well, we'd been okay before he showed up, we'd be okay now. I continued to rub against her ankles, but something wet fell on to my fur.  
  
Lyria was crying. 


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Here's some more. In a bad mood, so torturing Lyria. Hope y'all can deal.  
  
October 31, 1981 is not a day anyone will ever forget, but Lyria and I spent it rather differently than the rest of the wizarding world.  
  
I knew Sirius was supposed to come over, and I knew something was different about Lyria. I just hoped they'd work it out, he'd move back in, and I'd get back to my Sunday Fish while Lyria would stop being so upset all the time.  
  
He never arrived.  
  
At about 10 PM (he was supposed to arrive at 9), Lyria went temporarily crazy. She started throwing things and making a mess. I watched from on top of a high shelf as she began to sob and smash up old pictures.  
  
"I hate him. I HATE HIM!" She screamed, throwing an old trinket against the wall. It shattered, bits of glass flying everywhere. She overturned tables, hollered some more, and eventually flopped out onto the bed and sobbed.  
  
I only got down from the shelf at about 11:30 to curl up near her.  
  
"I'm sorry, Crookshanks, I guess I'm scaring you," she said quietly. "I guess I'll get some ice cream and eat myself sick. Can't drink with the baby, now can I?"  
  
A baby! No wonder she was so upset. That dirty biker type, leaving us by ourselves with a stinky baby! Poor Lyria. I still didn't really understand – I was sure she'd teach it not to pull tails and be otherwise unpleasant just fine – but if she was upset, then I supposed I was too.  
  
At about midnight (or at least, I was licking up the last of the ice cream), an owl tapped on the window. Lyria let it in, much to my dismay, and rushed out. "I'll be back," she told me, and hurried out.  
  
Lyria returned a very different person than she'd been when she left.  
  
"He killed so many people, Crookshanks," she sobbed, stroking me softly. "His best friend. My best friend. My *sister.* Poor Peter. All of them, dead..."  
  
It took me very little time to figure out what had happened. Sirius—the innocent, nice guy who'd fed me fish every Sunday, despite always smelling of dog—had killed thirteen people with one curse and betrayed his friends.  
  
I'm usually a much better judge of character than that, and it scared me that I'd thought he was a good guy. Getting Lyria pregnant and killing thirteen people didn't qualify him as a good guy.  
  
What if he'd hurt Lyria?  
  
She changed, though. She was never quite the same as she'd been around him. All of a sudden, she was quick to anger, sharper, colder somehow. She was almost never home. One of her friends, a man named Remus, once said she was trying to work herself to death, or at least to insanity. Sometimes I agreed with him.  
  
I suppose that's what happens when someone betrays you. 


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Thank you, thank you a thousand times to Ignominia for her encouragement of my work in this story. She encouraged at a point when I really need it, and I just want to dedicate this chapter to her, since she likes this fic. Thanks!!  
  
On with the obligatories, Harry Potter still does not belong to me. Remus & Dell feature this chapter with Lyria. Enjoy!!  
  
  
  
Lyria got pretty difficult to live with after that. She wasn't really sleeping, and she didn't really eat much. She just seemed to stop caring. It was as if she wasn't really there.  
  
I guess it was two weeks later that she was late coming home. At first, there was no cause for concern; so, she was a bit late. No need to worry. But by the time she was three or four hours late, I decided it was time to worry.  
  
She was carried in a few minutes later by her friend, the Remus fellow, who was closely followed by another friend who I knew simply as Dell. As soon as he dropped her onto the bed, I could see she was hurt badly. She seemed to be bleeding from the head and had been hit by not a few hexes, and that arm had to be broken. She simply lay there motionless, in the same position Remus had dropped her in. Like a corpse.  
  
Like the corpses she'd described to me at the scene of Sirius' crime, as best she could through the tears.  
  
Dell tried something to help, but it seemed to be very little use.  
  
"Go get Fletcher, he doesn't live too far away," Dell ordered, looking worried. Remus ran out. "Lyri? Lyri, can you hear me?"  
  
"Wha—what—" She began.  
  
"Shh!" Dell ordered. "Don't die on us, okay? Fletcher's coming..."  
  
"Don't bother," Lyria croaked. "Just don't bother..."  
  
Fletcher stormed through the door and ran to assist, and I wandered off, not wanting to look. 'Don't bother,' she'd said. Now that frightened me... why not? Because she felt she as good as dead?  
  
Or was part of her dead already?  
  
Damn that biker!  
  
Dell stayed all night, and when she had to leave for work the next morning, Remus came over to stay with her.  
  
"Feeling any better?" he asked.  
  
"Physically, maybe," she said quietly.  
  
"It's not worth this much worry, Lyria. Yes, you loved him, and I know you still do. But..." it seemed to hurt him to say this, "He's not worth your time and energy. And he's certainly not worth your life."  
  
"So everyone tells me." Came the nearly inaudible reply.  
  
There was a long pause before Remus broke the silence. "Lyria, are you pregnant?"  
  
She burst into sobs.  
  
Remus let her cry for a bit. "You've got to pull yourself together here. There's a new little person counting on you, and plenty of others as well. You can't be falling apart over him, Lyri."  
  
It sounded so harsh at the time, but it was exactly what she needed. She composed herself. "You're right."  
  
Nothing more was said of Sirius Black in the flat for a very long time. 


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Sorry about the LONG delay, dumb finals!! Anyway, I'm back to the keyboard, so expect stuff to simply pour from my fingers over the next week or so. (At least in the afternoons, when I finally wake up... heh heh...) This chapter: however did Crookshanks wind up in the Magical Menagerie? And the baby (::grin::) arrives! Part 2 is beginning to take shape in my head, everyone!!  
  
  
  
Lyria always was good at adapting, and she adjusted to the new lifestyle very quickly. I didn't really mind, since it wasn't very different than the way we'd lived before he'd moved in. (Unless, of course, you count the presence of baby care books and the slow conversion of a corner of the room into a nursery. I just hoped the kid didn't stink too badly.)  
  
Anyway, Lyria's pregnancy passed in relative calm. Some of her family spent more time with us than they had before, particularly her mother, but besides that, life was almost dull.  
  
That didn't last terribly long.  
  
One night, Dell came home rather than Lyria. "Let's get you fed so I can go see these new babies of Lyria's," she said, talking more at me than to me.  
  
Ah, the notorious baby had arrived! But wait, BABIES?!? She couldn't possibly be having more than one, could she? How small were those things? They were people, after all...  
  
Well, at least she went into labor at work and not in the flat. I'm sure *that* would have made an awful mess, at least from what I hear.  
  
Dell fed me and then left, and Lyria returned to the flat the next day with two small bundles, one pink and the other blue.  
  
"Crookshanks, meet Jason and Athena," she said grandly.  
  
I peered at them. They were both small, squirmy, and loud. Neither of them was stinky at the moment, but I was sure it was just a matter of time. I looked at Lyria, who was looking down at the two little creatures as if they were something truly extraordinary.  
  
I tried looking at them again. The blue bundle, which I assumed was Jason, bore a certain resemblance to Sirius. I decided that if I hissed at it, I'd do nothing but make Lyria angry, so I refrained from it. Besides that, he really was rather cute, and at least quieter than the pink bundle.  
  
I moved on to the girl—Athena – the pink bundle. She was crying at the moment, face all screwed up and red. She had about the same amount of dark hair as her brother. Lyria calmed her, and I saw that she had purplish eyes and was really rather cute when she wasn't crying.  
  
Lyria put them to bed, and I braced myself for the changes that were sure to come.  
  
  
  
  
  
It was less than a week later—barely a few days—when it happened. Lyria was making dinner for herself or heating a bottle or something of the sort when someone knocked at the door. Hands full, she used her wand to open it. "Give me a minute!" She put whatever it was down and picked up Athena. "Can I help you three with something?"  
  
I knew who they were by reading the paper over Lyria's shoulder. One was Cornelius Fudge, the brand new Minister of Magic. He'd taken the office about two weeks ago. To his left stood Alastor Moody, who I knew to be an Auror that had helped train Lyria. Just slightly behind them was Albus Dumbledore.  
  
"If you have a minute, Lyria, we'd like to talk to you," Moody told her.  
  
"I never have a minute, I have children," she replied with a smile. "Let me get Jason. Have a seat."  
  
She placed them both in some sort of baby holding contraption.  
  
"They're lovely, Lyria," Dumbledore told her.  
  
"Thank you. But I doubt the three of you came here for small talk." She replied.  
  
I wandered over to sit near the baskets.  
  
Moody & Dumbledore both looked at Fudge.  
  
"Well... we actually came here to talk to you about the children..." Fudge began hesitantly. "The Ministry feels it would be in the best interests of everyone if you were to..."  
  
"Yes, Minister?" She said, looking more than a bit exasperated at his reticence.  
  
"If you were to put them up for adoption," he finished.  
  
"WHAT?!?" Lyria exploded. Oooh, I almost pitied him. He had incurred the wrath of Lyria. Yes, Minister Fudge, sit in your chair and be afraid.  
  
"Let's be reasonable, Miss Strider," he tried again. Stupid. "With their father being... who he is, people are afraid. Little Harry Potter got rid of the dark lord, but his followers still live. Having the children of his heir around, well, it makes people nervous," Fudge informed her.  
  
Lyria's eyes narrowed. "So that's the story you're telling, is it?"  
  
He winced.  
  
"It'd be easier for you, girl," Moody told her. He was one of very few people who could talk to her like that. "Two children, all by yourself, and keeping up with your work... it'll be difficult."  
  
"I think I can manage," she snapped.  
  
"I can't be responsible for the results," Fudge told her.  
  
"I don't ask anyone to be responsible for my decisions. Get out of my flat," she demanded.  
  
I think he was in shock at being spoken to like that. He simply got up and obeyed, followed by Moody. They closed the door behind them.  
  
"And do you agree with them, then?" she asked Dumbledore, still looking outraged.  
  
"No, I do not. I think you've made a wise decision," he told her reassuringly. "I'll keep in contact." And with that, he was gone.  
  
Lyria simply Summoned the bottle off the counter and heated it with her wand.  
  
  
  
  
  
Lyria left for work, leaving a well-meaning elderly woman in charge of the babies. Sadly, however, she wasn't quite on top of things, and she wandered out of the flat around midmorning.  
  
Not much later, a pair of wizards in peculiar robes entered the flat. I knew what they were right away. Ministry Hit Wizards.  
  
"Let's find these kids and get out of here. I don't believe him, sending us to go get them..." One said.  
  
"I guess he's afraid of Strider setting some protection up. Come on, let's go," the other replied.  
  
I jumped off the sofa and stood in the door to the room. They weren't getting past me! I hissed at them furiously.  
  
"Get out of the way, stupid cat." One of them went to kick me.  
  
I attacked, but suddenly everything went black.  
  
When I woke up, Lyria was home and the living room contained Fudge, Dumbledore, Remus, Dell, and Lyria's Auror partner, a man by the name of Frank Longbottom. Remus was the one who'd reversed whatever they did to get me out of the way, I judged quickly.  
  
"My *children,* Minister!" Lyria bellowed. "My children are GONE!"  
  
"I understand your distress, Miss Strider, but I did warn you," he replied. "People are afraid."  
  
THAT GOOD FOR NOTHING, SNIVELING, COWARDLY LIAR! Not for the first time, I longed to be able to talk, to loudly proclaim what I'd seen. To tell Lyria that the twins hadn't been stolen by a raving madman, but by her two coworkers...  
  
"Everyone'll look into it, Lyria," Longbottom assured her.  
  
"You don't think there were Dark Wizards involved, do you? Trying to raise Black's children as they see fit?" Moody asked Fudge.  
  
I ignored everyone and went to rub against Lyria's ankles. She was going to need all the comfort she could get now. 


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Here's some more... bon appetit or whatever it is (I don't take French!)... eh.... Enjoy anyway!!  
  
"We're moving, Crookshanks."  
  
I listened to this pronouncement in shock. I understood that she didn't want to be surrounded by the memories, but still...  
  
It was about two months, and the children had yet to be found. Mostly everyone had given up hope - it wasn't as if they could make it on their own!-and I think it was weighing on Lyria pretty heavily.  
  
There wasn't time for "Lyria, can we discuss this like two reasonable adults?" In fact, there wasn't even time for, "Lyria, can we discuss this like a confused little kitty and a mentally unstable Auror?"  
  
She packed up the things she didn't need that night. Most of it consisted of a box of old letters from Sirius, her Hogwarts things - the memories she simply couldn't force herself to part with. Anyway, she brought those to the new flat (which was some ways away) that night, along with most of her robes. We'd stay in the flat until the weekend when she could move the furniture.  
  
The next night, Dell came over around six. "We're going out."  
  
"Dell, I have a lot of packing and other things to do today," Lyria said patiently.  
  
"Oh well!" Dell grabbed her friend by the wrist and dragged her out of the flat.  
  
I decided to take a nap. They'd likely be out late...  
  
I woke up to the smell of smoke. Something was burning... OH NO! The old lady next door had probably left the stove on or something! Hurriedly, I ran to Lyria's open bedroom window and clawed my way out to get to safety.  
  
The building went up in flames while Lyria was out that night.  
  
I wandered away from the ashes sadly. How was I supposed to find Lyria?  
  
Short answer: I wasn't. Perhaps I could get to Diagon Alley...? She'd have to go there sometime.  
  
I set off.  
  
  
  
  
  
I made it in the early morning and fell asleep in a pile of rubbish in no time. It wasn't soft or comfortable, but it would have to do for now...  
  
Something picked me up. I hissed and tried to scratch it.  
  
"Calm down! It's alright, you're safe. We'll get you inside and cleaned up," a voice told me. "Have you got a name?"  
  
I sighed. It would do until I found Lyria, I supposed.  
  
"Why, look how bowlegged you are! I think I'll call you... Crookshanks."  
  
GOOD LORD! What were the chances of getting a horrible name twice? Fate hates me.  
  
The woman, it turned out, was the owner of the Magical Menagerie, and wanted to sell me. Sell me!! I had an owner, thank you. She was just... well... missing. I'd lost her. Yes, that was all...  
  
I told myself that for the first few months.  
  
I settled into the routine around there again before long, and kept hoping that I'd see Lyria walk by someday and I'd be able to just slip out and meet her. Maybe she'd even found the babies...  
  
Eventually, I gave up.  
  
Back to "Please, Mummy, not him." 


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: This chapter has been the most uncooperative piece of poo I have ever written. It simply refuses to behave and be like I want it to, and therefore it is short and random. I apologize. I promise, 8 will be an improvement (can't get much worse) and by the time 9 rolls around, we should be good again.  
  
It was a good twelve years before anything changed.  
  
One day, a girl entered the shop with two boys behind her. Something about her reminded me of Lyria a bit; perhaps it was the fluffy hair, for there was no other physical resemblance, or perhaps it was her enchantment with a creature others had nothing but disapproval for. One of the boys looked so familiar... so much like Lyria's friend James...  
  
A RAT!! I lunged at it, paying no attention to the red haired boy who seemed to own him. Rat and boys flew from the store, and only Lyria-like girl (who I learned was named Hermione) remained.  
  
She bought me.  
  
I always did have good luck with girls with fluffy hair.  
  
"No one wanted him," she was telling her friends, clutching me as if she expected me to run away. Well of course no one wanted me! I made myself deliberately unpleasant!! I sniffed the air and immediately felt like I should be on my guard. But why? What shady type were my senses warning me of? The only people I'd been around were Hermione, the redhead, and James- like child.  
  
That rat! It had to be the rat! I wasn't quite sure what was wrong with it, but I knew it wasn't to be trusted almost immediately.  
  
It turned out Hermione was going into her third year at Hogwarts the next day. Funny, Lyria had bought me before her third year as well. History repeating itself... perhaps I should be wary of that redhead, then, if he was anything like James' supposed best friend.  
  
Hogwarts never changes. I noticed that upon returning with Hermione. The building was the same, and though a few of the teachers were different (and mind, not terribly many), things continued as they had for the past thousand some years.  
  
Hermione let me wander pretty freely, which was nice. I started getting in the habit of hunting nights; it was important to stay practiced. I could wind up on my own at any time, as life had taught me more than once...  
  
One night, I was wandering the grounds when I sensed *something* behind me. I turned-  
  
A giant black dog stood there, but I knew it wasn't a dog. It seemed I had encountered the escaped biker jerk... I hissed viciously. An Animagus, was he? That explained the smell of dog.  
  
He stopped, surprised, and transformed back. If I hadn't known from his smell, I never would have known it was him. The dark hair hung matted to his elbows, his eyes no longer laughed, and he looked like he hadn't eaten properly in the twelve years he'd been locked up. He looked like... well, like he'd escaped from prison, I reasoned with myself. And he ought to be there! Killing thirteen people, betraying his two friends and his pregnant fiance... he'd made enough of a mess. I snarled at him, trying to get him to go away.  
  
"I've got enough enemies without a stupid cat after me now too," he muttered hoarsely, sounding nothing like he used to.  
  
I stopped and watching him sit down, the vacant look still in his eyes. I wondered if he had gone crazy. Enough of them do, in that place... and he *had* been there long enough. How he'd even made it that long was mystery enough; perhaps he *had* learned dark powers from You-Know-Who. And however had he managed to escape? Granted, he was bright, but that was supposed to be impossible...  
  
What troubled me was that he had never seemed to be that type. I'd shared a house with him, and I'd never sensed even a shade of evil intention from him. Mischief, to be sure (and regularly!), but never the sort of violent evil required to kill in cold blood. I sensed more evil from that rat of Ron Weasley's than I did from Sirius...  
  
I approached him cautiously. He reached out to pet me. I hissed and backed up. He transformed back to his dog form and turned to me questioningly.  
  
And I understood him. Sort of. If he'd turned to a cat I think I would have heard him loud and clear, but I still knew he was asking for help.  
  
Well, I wasn't going to agree to anything just yet. I walked off, holding my tail up. While I decided what to do, I'd just go after that rat again.  
  
I had to think about this one. I could have been wrong about him, after all. There's a first time for everything. 


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Better than the last one, that's all I can promise. And, shucks, Harry Potter still doesn't belong to me. Sorry kids. Enjoy!  
  
Try as I might, every attempt to catch that rat and bring him to Sirius failed over the next month. I learned a great deal, though. James-like child was actually James's son, Harry. The redhead, Ron, had had the rat for twelve years - the same amount of time Sirius had been in Azkaban. Hermione's parents were Muggles.  
  
Hermione told me *everything.* All about her time-turner, and how she felt guilty not telling anyone but she'd promised not to, and how she was *so* pleased she had been trusted with one and could take all those classes. I thought she was nutters, but then, Lyria had been, too.  
  
Everything progressed as normal until Halloween night.  
  
Stupid impatient Sirius had decided he could wait no longer and had entered the castle. He slashed up the portrait of the Fat Lady outside Gryffindor tower with a knife.  
  
The moron! I was doing my best! He'd waited twelve years (for he had explained everything to me) to kill him, couldn't he just wait a little longer?!? Nooooo, of course not, he had to try to force his way into the tower and put the whole bloody school on alert! Way to prove your innocence, Sirius Black! Clearly, I'd forgotten that he sometimes had an intellect rivaled only by garden tools.  
  
I decided I'd best get back to work before he tried some other foolhardy stunt.  
  
Eventually I gave up on trying to catch the rat and looked out for a way to get Sirius inside Gryffindor tower so he could get it himself.  
  
The answer came in the form of a forgetful boy named Neville Longbottom. He reminded me forcefully of Peter, the one we were trying to get at, but no matter.  
  
When the Fat Lady was being restored, Sir Cadogan filled in. As he changed the password nearly on the hour, Neville had demanded that Sir Cadogan give him the passwords for the week and had proceeded to write them down.  
  
One night, not terribly long after Christmas, I crept into the boy's dormitory and snatched the paper from Neville's bedside table and brought it to Sirius.  
  
The idiot messed everything up again.  
  
He woke up Ron Weasley slashing the curtains with his precious knife instead of just silently finding the rat and doing away with it.  
  
The school was in an uproar again.  
  
I really had no idea how I was supposed to help him when he did nothing to help himself. 


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Yay for the nice long new section! This chapter tells of the evening in the Shrieking Shack from Crookshanks's POV... it should be accurate, as I'm writing it with the book right next to me. =) Therefore, all the dialogue which you will recognize is NOT mine, but belongs, as does all of the Potterverse, to J.K. Rowling. Enjoy!  
  
Finally, the Great Rat Quest ended, as all things must. You might call the last day of exams the Grand Finale, for it was certainly worthy of ending such a drama...  
  
The rat had run off some time ago, and I had (naturally) been blamed for his death. I managed to communicate this to Sirius, who was still determined to catch it.  
  
I was prowling the grounds in my usual fashion when I came across Hermione, Harry, and Ron walking back to the castle. Ron was struggling to hold something...  
  
"Scabbers, stay *put*!" He said impatiently.  
  
I, of course, immediately began to stalk over.  
  
Scabbers- Peter- The rat ran off, finally getting loose, and Ron went chasing it, followed at a slight distance by Harry and Hermione. Then Sirius bounded out of nowhere (he'd gotten rather good at that) and grabbed Ron and Peter, dragging them down into the tunnel below the Whomping Willow.  
  
Harry and Hermione struggled to follow, fighting off the branches which pummeled them, until I remembered they couldn't slip between those branches and pressed the knot on the trunk. They *had* to go after Ron... Sirius *had* to get a chance to explain himself...  
  
They went down the tunnel together. I hurried ahead of them and found Ron and Sirius in a room upstairs. There was a bed in the room, and I immediately made myself at home, purring contentedly.  
  
"He's the dog... he's an Animagus..." I heard Ron warning, but Sirius had already transformed and closed the door behind them.  
  
Sirius disarmed them - finally, he'd done *something* properly - before turning to Harry. "I thought you'd come and help your friend. Your father would have done the same for me. Brave of you, not to run for a teacher. I'm grateful... it will make everything much easier..."  
  
What an idiot. Way to gain their trust, Sirius, sound like you're ready to kill them...  
  
There had been more talk while I was mentally berating Sirius, and when I began to pay attention again, Ron was on his feet. "Did you hear me? You'll have to kill all three of us!"  
  
"There'll be only one murder here tonight," Sirius said, grinning like a maniac. I wished again for a voice to tell him he wasn't exactly acting like an innocent man.  
  
"HE KILLED MY MUM AND DAD!" Harry bellowed, attacking Sirius.  
  
Sirius eventually got Harry off him, though he had to choke him, and the second he tried, Hermione and Ron had jumped into the fight. With a resigned feeling, I jumped in as well, diving at Harry.  
  
He shook me off and beat me to his wand. As Harry pointed his wand at Sirius, I planted myself between the wand and Sirius.  
  
"Get off," Sirius muttered, trying to push me away. But I didn't move. Instead, I stared at Harry.  
  
Minutes passed. They seemed to take forever.  
  
Then, footsteps from downstairs.  
  
"WE'RE UP HERE! WE'RE UP HERE - SIRIUS BLACK - QUICK!" cried Hermione.  
  
Professor Lupin, who had been teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts, burst into the room, disarming everyone. He glanced around and then asked, "Where is he, Sirius?"  
  
Wait! Lupin knew Sirius? What the...  
  
Ow! Lupin pulled Sirius to his feet, and I fell to the floor with a thud. But suddenly, it made sense... Remus Lupin. Lyria's old friend... Good Lord, I'd been denser even than Sirius not to see it!  
  
But Hermione was screaming. "NO! Harry, don't trust him, he's been helping Black get into the castle, he wants you dead too - he's a werewolf!"  
  
I winced. There goes everything. Right, it's okay, you can trust him, he's just a werewolf. Why not go necking with a vampire once we get everything figured out in here?  
  
Lupin handed them back their wands. "There. You're armed, we're not. Now will you listen?"  
  
Oh, bother. He's going to tell them *everything.* There goes the neighborhood...  
  
Lupin announced that Ron's pet rat was actually Peter Pettigrew.  
  
The reaction was to be expected. The three teens insisted the pair of them were insane (I was beginning to agree, though for totally different reasons).  
  
He proceeded to explain everything to them, about how his friends had become Animagi. I'd heard the story (as Sirius had sort of stood Lyria up one full moon, and she hadn't been pleased), so I rather stopped paying attention.  
  
Until a new voice - an invisible voice - made its presence known.  
  
Snape, the Potions teacher, was there as well.  
  
Before long, he was bellowing orders and threatening Sirius and Remus.  
  
Then the three teens all tried to disarm him at once. It worked, but they were a bit overeager, and the end result was Snape out cold on the floor and his wand next to me. I inched away from it. Disgusting man, that potions master. I wanted nothing to do with his belongings.  
  
Sirius and Remus forced Peter to resume human form.  
  
This was another story I knew, so I didn't pay much attention.  
  
The moment had finally come. They were going to kill the rat. It was rather pathetic to watch Pettigrew pleading with everyone in the room, begging them to spare him. But when he came to Harry, it was too much for Sirius.  
  
"HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO HARRY? HOW DARE YOU FACE HIM? HOW DARE YOU TALK ABOUT JAMES IN FRONT OF HIM?" Sirius bellowed.  
  
Knowing he had a temper and watching him holler at Pettigrew were two entirely different things. Most likely because I had known him through Lyria, I had never seen him so enraged. He'd certainly never screamed at her like that. But then again, she'd have as soon beaten him up as allowed him to holler at her.  
  
Pay attention, you stupid cat.  
  
"THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED! DIED RATHER THAN BETRAY YOUR FRIENDS, AS WE WOULD HAVE DONE FOR YOU!" Sirius yelled. I was surprised the whole school wasn't up here yet.  
  
"You should have realized if Voldemort didn't kill you, we would." Remus was calm, as he always was. "Good-bye, Peter."  
  
"NO! You can't kill him! You can't," Harry yelled suddenly, rushing over.  
  
Good Lord! Was the boy stupid? Pettigrew would have gladly seen him dead, but nooo, they couldn't kill him! That would be going too far!  
  
"I don't reckon my dad would've wanted them to become killers - just for you," Harry said quietly.  
  
They tied Pettigrew, and we began the trip back up to the castle, me leading the way. I stopped the tree from beating the group into a pulp and trotted off. Problem solved. Everything was as it should be.  
  
A/N: Except, of course, that it doesn't work that way... Crookshanks will be back next chapter to share his perspective on the result! 


End file.
